This afternoon we were in line at a grocery store about 30 miles from home. "Adam!" a customer service employee called to a manager walking away from the register he had been manning, "your lane light is still on." I glanced up to see a man of about 35 with a neatly trimmed beard, but my brain automatically erased both the beard and the last 20 years. I knew him immediately as the aggravating 12-year-old boy he was in sixth grade, and I remembered how the two of us spent that year at odds: he, defiant, and I, frustrated.
It was not one of my prouder teaching experiences, and I was humbled and then hopeful that I might be more successful if he were my student now.
I studied him as he stood chatting. He looked so much more relaxed and confident, and especially happier, than he had the last time I saw him. Oh, I could have gone over and explained who I was, but this time I decided not to.
Everyone deserves the chance to outgrow themselves.
It was not one of my prouder teaching experiences, and I was humbled and then hopeful that I might be more successful if he were my student now.
I studied him as he stood chatting. He looked so much more relaxed and confident, and especially happier, than he had the last time I saw him. Oh, I could have gone over and explained who I was, but this time I decided not to.
Everyone deserves the chance to outgrow themselves.
Awesome! I remember a few Adams fondly.
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